USA: Chino mosque gathers in grief for victims of San Bernardino shooting

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In the coming days, members of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community will pray, reach out to the victims and will stand ready to assist law enforcement. 

Photo via Twitter: Vikki Vargas, KNBC TV ‏@VikkiNBCLA

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit:  Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
By Monica Rodriguez | December 3, 2015

CHINO -- A mosque in Chino held a vigil Thursday night in memory of the 14 victims who died in the San Bernardino mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center Wednesday.

Leaders with the Baitul Hameed Mosque of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Los Angeles East Chapter said they gathered in grief and spoke of their desire for peace.

“We all must pray. These are very challenging times,” said Ahsan Khan, president of the Los Angeles East Chapter of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of the U.S. “We extend our heartfelt condolences to you and everyone hurt.”

He added that the killing of an innocent life is “like the destruction of all mankind.”

The vigil took place shortly before the Baitul Hameed Mosque’s evening prayers. Suspected shooters Syed Farook and wife Tashfeen Malik worshipped elsewhere, at the Islamic Center of Riverside.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is an international revival movement within Islam, according to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Los Angeles East Chapter website. The community, which was founded in 1889, believes the Messiah has come and that God sent Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to “end religious wars, condemn bloodshed and reinstitute morality, justice and peace,” according to the community’s website.

Members said they too are persecuted for their beliefs in some countries.

In a statement released Thursday prior to the vigil, mosque leaders said they “pray for the swift recovery of the injured and for our heroic San Bernardino County law enforcement officers. We continue to offer our deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims,” the statement said.

Thursday night, those gathered at the mosque prayed for those who died — “that God almighty (would) fill the void” left in their lives and hearts with peace, said Imam Mohammed Zufarullah — and for those wounded at the Inland Regional Center.

Leaders of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, whose motto is, “Love for all, hate for none,” said what happened in San Bernardino is a senseless act of violence that fuel the public’s fear of Islam.

“May (God) enable us to coexist as brothers and sisters,” Khan said to those attending the vigil.

In the coming days, members of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community will pray, reach out to the victims and will stand ready to assist law enforcement. Plans are also in the works to hold a blood drive Dec. 13 to help the victims who survived the shooting.

They will relay a “message of peace,” that Islam is not about violence, Khan said.

Leaders said that as American Muslims, they are troubled to hear Wednesday’s shooting may have involved an American-born Muslim Millennial.

The radicalization of young Muslims is a problem, leaders acknowledged, but it’s one they believe young American Muslims can fight by reaching out to youth and showing them that Islam is about peace.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was joined at the vigil by members of the Chino Police Department and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Also present was Bill McCook, Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints’ director of public affairs for the Chino, Chino Hills and Diamond Bar area.

“I’d like to thank the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community for its leadership in this moment,” McCook said. “I know them to be people of goodwill and people of honor.”

He said there is nothing in common between their community and those who carry out the kind of acts seen in San Bernardino.


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